University of Iowa alumnus Jacob Isbell, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy, has been awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to lead the development of a breakthrough optical instrument for the Large Binocular Telescope. 

Isbell received a bachelor's degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Iowa in 2018. He worked with Associate Professor Hai Fu as a research assistant and was named a 2017 Goldwater Scholar.